Mesoporous manganese oxide nanobelts for decontamination of sarin, sulphur mustard and chloro ethyl ethyl sulphide

Mesoporous manganese oxide nanobelts were synthesized by hydrothermal-ion exchange method and characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, N2-BET, thermogravimetry and FT-IR techniques. Decontamination reactions of sarin (GB), sulphur mustard (HD) and chloro ethyl ethyl sulphide (CEES) were studied on obtained mesoporous material by using gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC–MS) techniques. Decontamination products formed via hydrolysis were non-toxic methyl phosphonic acid, thiodiglycol and hydroxyl ethyl ethyl sulphide. Decontamination reactions exhibited pseudo first order behavior and the values of rate constant and half life were found to be 0.43 h−1 and 1.6 h for GB, 0.01 h−1 and 69.32 h for HD, and 0.02 h−1 and 34.66 h for CEES, respectively.